


always set to self destruct

by earthquakedream



Category: CW Network RPF, Firefly, Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, M/M, Past Relationship(s), Semi-Fusion, Sort of Crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-24
Updated: 2011-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-28 00:57:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/301982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/earthquakedream/pseuds/earthquakedream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Semi-fusion with Firefly. Jensen has a good thing going for him - great ship, faithful (yet annoying) crew, lots of semi-illegal jobs to be done - until Jared Padalecki stows away on his ship. That bastard just won't leave him alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	always set to self destruct

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hunters_retreat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunters_retreat/gifts).



> Written for the 2011 spn_j2_xmas exchange.

Jensen Ackles was a good goddamn captain, didn't matter what anyone said. He loved his ship, got along well with his crew - most of them anyway, he and Danneel fought like children sometimes - and took care of shit that needed taking care of.

But sometimes he didn't check the cargo as carefully as he should when they touched down on some world or another. He was a smuggler by trade, people and merchandise, didn't exactly run on the legal side of business. Didn't matter to anyone but himself and his crew of course, but some folks didn't take too kindly to being swindled, or having their slaves taken away and freed on a better world.

Still, Jensen always tried to keep track of what he was carrying on board. If someone wanted something kept private, he wasn't the type to go digging where he had no business. He'd do a scan, just to make sure it wasn't going to be blowing up in his face or there wasn't a heart beating in there, then leave it be. He wasn't taking any chances since that thing with the imported girl who was way too young to shipped for any kind of business

This time, though, he was positive he knew what was in all those crates: banned books being delivered to a school. The place was way too rich to be dealing with him, but Jensen wasn't the type to turn down work. That was, until that assumption came out and bit him in the ass.

Not literally, thankfully, but he wouldn't have been surprised if it had.

"It" was the guy that popped free of a large metal cargo box a good 12 hours after they'd picked up that particular batch. Jensen heard the clang of the lid being dropped on the deck and raced from the kitchen to the ledge overlooking the cargo hold.

There was a half-naked giant crawling out of the box, looking weak and beat up. Jensen didn't run to help him, though. He was struck dumb once he recognized who the hell it was.

He pulled his gun and cocked it. "Jared Tristan Padalecki you freeze right there before I blow that precious area between your legs clean off."

Jared froze with one long leg in the box and the other on the floor. He had a bloody gash running along his side, the waist of his pants soaked with blood. Jensen heard their adopted medic Aldis sigh.

"Can I patch him up before you shoot him, Cap?"

"Won't be necessary if I shoot him first."

Jared raised his hands slowly, looking at Jensen with too-long hair falling into his pleading eyes. "Jensen, you don't wanna shoot me."

"Don't I, though?" Jensen kept his gun trained on Jared, aiming right between his legs. "I am awful tempted."

"You shoot him and we're revolting," Danneel said from somewhere behind him. No one joined in on her threat, but Jensen lowered his gun anyway.

"Now why would you go and do that to me, darlin'? I thought you loved your old captain." Jensen gave her a pout and Danneel pinched his lower lip.

"Not feeling so much love as curiosity about why you wanna shoot this poor stowaway."

"Well, we're already in the air, but I would just as soon dump him out the back of the ship."

Danneel rolled her eyes and shot a glance at Jared. "You can put your hands down. The captain is gonna go ahead and search you for weapons, then Dr. Hod here will look you over. I might even be able to convince Genevieve to cook up some decent grub."

Jensen glared at her. "I'm not searching him, Harris. You can do that your own goddamn self."

"Nope. I don't wanna get my hands dirty." She shoved them in her pockets and left, probably to go find Genevieve and get her gossip on.

Jared lifted his other leg from the box and stumbled. He looked pale. It was probably the blood loss.

Jensen stomped down the stairs to the cargo hold, tucking his gun away as he went. His search was perfunctory, hands light as he checked Jared for any hidden weapons. There was a knife tucked into his boot, so Jensen pocketed that and patted him on the ass.

"Soon as you're patched up, we're gonna have a long talk in my quarters about how much you owe me for not shooting your betraying ass." He flashed Jared a quick smile and nudged him up the steps so Aldis could take him to the infirmary.

He wouldn't be a good captain if he didn't keep watch outside, make sure Jared didn't turn a scalpel into a weapon or something stupid like that. Jared was good, though, just laid there and let the medic work on him, sewing up the gash, applying some antiseptic cream and pumping him full of antibiotics and pain killers.

Danneel came up behind him - she was always goddamn doing that, Jensen hated it - and nudged her fist against his shoulders.

"So, Cap, what's the story here?"

"We worked together, he betrayed me, I ditched his ass and got myself a trustworthy crew."

"Sounds like a good love story to me."

"That's because you've got a twisted mind, Harris."

Danneel gave him her biggest, sweetest smile. Jensen fought the urge to shudder. "At least you're right about some things."

"I'm right about everything." She watched Jensen look back at Jared laid out on the exam table and sigh. "And I know this ain't gonna end well at all."

"You're a pessimist, that much is obvious. Come find me when you got a more positive outlook on life, okay?"

"Guess I'll never see you again." Jensen squawked angrily when Danneel smacked his ass on her way by.

The shit he put up with from his crew knew no bounds. He really had to stop being so good to them.

With Jared aboard, he'd have to make sure he kept a careful eye on him. To make sure he wasn't doing anything to cause trouble, of course.

That was Jensen's story, and he was sticking to it.

 

 

Jared passed out after Aldis was through with him, so Jensen made sure the infirmary door was secured and Jared had a glass of water and a tray of good food in there with him before he brought his crew into the kitchen to speak with them.

"Now, I'm not willing to go into too much detail because this story is way too long and complicated for that, but the basics are: me and Jared worked a couple jobs together five years back, when I was still stupid and headstrong about stealing from the rich, giving to the poor, and keeping a nice cut for the two of us."

Danneel smirked at him. "And now you're all about taking what jobs we can, getting paid for them, and jerkin' yourself to sleep in your bunk."

"Quiet your insubordinate mouth, Harris," Jensen snarled, but she never listened to him. He sighed. "Anyway, Jared got greedy. We had a nice take, some pretty jewelry along with solid gold coins, and he had his own plans on what to do with it."

Jensen had to pause and take a breath. The memories still hurt, even to this day.

"Needless to say, we got in a huge fight about it. He took the goods and ran off. Haven't seen him since. Got no idea why he's on board here and I don't plan on socializing with him much. Neither should any of you. Leave him be and we'll drop him off at the next stop we make."

Genevieve raised a hand. "You realize we're not stopping for a week, right? We're all fueled up and have to make a straight run to Fogarra."

"When did you turn into my pilot?" Jensen asked, shooting a look to his actual pilot.

"What she said," Mike told him, devilish smirk on his face. Jensen glared.

"You're a dick and I ought to fire you."

"You won't. Can't find a better flyer than me anywhere in this 'verse."

Jensen hated to admit that was true, so he just glared at Mike before looking away.

"Fine. We'll drop him off at Fogarra. Padalecki can fend for himself."

Genevieve sighed and walked over to Jensen, patting him on the arm. "Maybe you should try to hide your resentment and unresolved sexual tension a little harder, Cap."

Before Jensen could reprimand her for being so free with her speech, Genevieve walked off, grabbing Danneel's hand on the way. What was with his crew assuming he had feeling for the back-stabbing asshole who was laid out in their infirmary?

"They're totally gonna go have sex," Mike said, rubbing his hands together.

"And you're going to get back to your job," Jensen snapped. "Go fly my damn ship. I don't want us crashing into any space junk. We're in the air for a week, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah." Mike got up. "I miss fresh air already."

"Shouldn't have agree to be my pilot then!" Jensen said to Mike's back.

"You're a real friendly guy, Cap," Aldis said, rubbing his hands over his thighs. "I ain't gonna complain about how you run the place or any feeling you might have for our guest, but all this anger and stress can't be good for your heart. Calm down before you give yourself a goddamn heart attack, huh?"

Jensen sighed. "I'll drink some damn herbal tea if you get off my back."

"That's what I like to hear." Aldis clapped him on the back. "I'll go check on our patient."

"He's your patient. If you can keep him unconscious the whole week, that'd be great."

Aldis smirked at him. "Naw, that'd just be rude."

He left Jensen alone in the kitchen to make his tea.

Wasn't ten minutes later that Jensen found himself standing in the infirmary, tea abandoned half-finished. Jared was stirring already. The brute couldn't stay down with just a single dose of sedative.

He watched Jared lift his head and blink slowly in his direction. "Jen?" he mumbled, one big hand reaching out. "Jen, hey, c'mere. Missed you."

Jensen's eyes narrowed, staying against the wall, out of reach. "Why are you on my ship, Padalecki?"

Jared seemed to realize what was going on, his eyes clearing as he took in the sterile room they were in. Aldis excused himself and closed the door behind him.

He was Jensen's favorite right now.

"I, uh, had to get out fast. I didn't know it was your ship, or I would have--"

"Liar," Jensen said. "Don't lie to me. You're safe for a week. We're going to Fogarra to drop this cargo and I'm not dealing with a dead body on my ship, so I even promise not to shoot you. Tell me what I wanna know."

"I saw you leaving Sheppard's tent," Jared started, voice still slow from the drugs. "I... I was already hurtin' bad at this point, lost some blood, had just ditched the guys who were comin' after me, and I found a big box. It was near the ones you guys were loading on, so I just... I moved it closer, I climbed in it, and I waited. Figured you might show me a little more mercy than those guys."

Jensen stared at him hard. "And who are _those guys_? Do I have to worry about them comin' after you? What'd you do?"

"It was some politician's goons! I, okay, I know this sounds bad, but hear me out. You know my inclinations. You know I'm not exactly on the straight'n narrow in any sense of the word. But I was trying to get some information of the bastard's daughter so I could get into his safe. He thought I was trying to bed her."

Jared looked so distraught, so damn desperate, that Jensen couldn't help it.

He started to laugh, a big guffaw coming straight from his belly, head tipping back and his foot stamping against the ground.

"You gotta be _kidding_ me!" Jensen fought to calm down, feeling Jared's harsh glare on him. "No, no, seriously, this guy thought you wanted to sleep with his little girl? That's-- oh, oh my, I'm gonna _die_."

It took him more than a few minutes to calm down, hands clutching at his aching sides. Jared aimed a smack to his head but couldn't quite reach.

"I get it, okay? I'm a big ol' queer, as you well know, how could anyone ever think I might get a girl?"

"No, JT, I'm wonderin' how anyone could think you might _want_ a girl. Our hardest runs were the ones where you had to flirt with a lady."

Jared seemed to think on that for a moment, then snorted. "Remember when I was supposed to seduce a maid to get into the house?"

"You just creeped her the hell out and _I_ had to do the seducing. And she was tellin' me about this giant of a man who was trying to get under her skirt but he just came off all rape-y."

"Don't remind me," Jared groaned, rubbing a hand over his bruised face. "She wanted to call the cops on me."

"She nearly did. You're damn lucky you had me around."

"Yeah." Jared's face closed off as he kept his eyes on Jensen. "Yeah, I am."

Jensen sighed. "Don't act all hurt. You're the one who ran off on me, remember?"

"Yeah, I wanted to keep the goods and retire, the hell is wrong with that? We had plenty of money, we were fucking set for life!"

"You're a damn fool if you seriously thought we could live off what we had forever. Where were we gonna settle down? Not many moons that take too kindly to queers. The ones that do are too damn expensive for anyone to stay on without becomin' a goddamn whore." Jensen shook his head. "We both know it never woulda lasted between us."

"You really think that?" Jared gave him a tight smile. "I might have been a damn fool, but only because I was so in love with you."

Jensen shoved back any feelings that tried to crop back up and flashed a tight smile. "When you're ready to move, there's a room set up for you. We've got some food, too, if you're hungry."

"I'm fine," Jared said. He was probably lying, but Jensen still left him alone. He had no desire to keep on digging up the past.

 

 

It was a day and a half later when the call came. Jensen had been doing his best to avoid Jared, while the man insisted on charming every last member of his crew. Even Danneel (reacted in a way that suggested she'd been charmed), and she was always wary of strangers. It'd taken her a good month to warm up to everyone on his ship, except for Genevieve.

He was busy avoiding Jared in the cock pit, listening to Mike regale him with some raunchy story about this whorehouse he visited once and saved from demise, though Jensen was mostly just staring out at the stars.

"Then I helped her cut the cord and she was _so_ grateful--"

"I thought you were upstairs shooting down the sheriff's men?" Jensen glanced over at him, smirk firm on his face.

Mike opened his mouth to respond when the vid screen crackled to life. Jensen swung around to look at it.

He glared at the face that came into focus. "What the hell could you possibly want, Collins?"

Misha Collins, crazy bastard extraordinaire, gave Jensen a wicked grin. "I have a job for you."

"There's no way I'm doing anything that might help you."

"Even if it pays generously? I have produce and gold that could be yours if you do me a small favor."

"The last small favor I did for you almost got my ship blown up."

Collins gave him another crazy grin. "But it was so much _fun_ and I compensated you for all the damage!"

"Just tell me what the goddamn job is and we'll see if whatever your offerin' is worth the damage it will cause."

"So there's this gun..."

 

 

Jensen knew the plan was goddamn crazy, but the plans Jared thought up always were and there weren't much they could do about it now.

The gun was a family heirloom, stolen by a heartless trader by the name of Cohan. She went around the galaxy, marrying whatever man could be duped into falling for her act before she stole everything from them and disappeared into the black.

Jensen had run across her once before, but it hadn't taken him more than five minutes to turn her away, telling her, _honey, not only am I well aware of your reputation but you ain't getting nowhere with me unless you're hiding a cock under that pretty dress._

He'd gotten smacked for it, but he'd worn the stark red handprint with pride.

This mission was gonna be good for them, especially since it meant Jensen got to take something away from Lauren Cohan. It was going to be a sweet, sweet victory.

And it was, up until Jared got his hands on the goods and looked at Jensen with that same desperate, pleading look that had split them apart the first time. Jensen narrowed his eyes, staring over Cohan's body - knocked out, that was all, he wasn't going to kill her - and opened his mouth.

"I'm not leavin' you, Jen, so don't you say anything." Jared stepped toward him, holding the antique gun out. "But you just promise me one thing."

"What's that? What am I promising you?" Jensen didn't take the gun, even though he should have snatched it right out of Jared's traitorous hands.

"Don't drop me off at Fogarra. Let me stay on your junky ship. Maybe it'll take time for you to trust me again, but I wanna be around to earn that. I ran off before 'cause I was upset, I was being petty. Thought you didn't..." Jared trailed off with a small shrug.

"First of all, she ain't junky, she's the only girl who's loyal to me, and if you wanna bad mouth her, there's no way you're staying on." Jensen looked at Jared's stupid grin and glared. "But for the record, whatever it is you think _I didn't_... I do. Now let's go." They had to get out of there before Cohan's long lost husband showed up with the calvary.

He held the bag out for Jared, who dumped the gun into it. They both took a ride down the garbage chute, found their shuttle sitting next to the dumpster where they'd left it, and headed back to the ship.

They did plenty celebrating after getting their payment from Collins that night, strong ale passed around the group while they stuffed themselves on real meat, roast potatoes, and fresh greens. It was the type of thing they didn't allow themselves often, but the day had called for it.

Jensen shared a few smiles with Jared across the table, body warmed by good food and alcohol, flashes of dimples from Jared reminding him it'd been a good long time since he'd taken anyone to bed.

No matter how much he wanted to that night, especially when he saw the girls leave together hand in hand, heads bent close as they shared laughter, he shrugged it off and went to be alone.

He took himself in hand once he was laying in bed and imagined Jared with him, his big mouth and bigger hands, easily recalling the sounds Jared used to make when he stuffed Jensen full of dick and took him until neither of them could move anymore.

He made himself look Jared in the eyes the next day, even though those old memories kept cropping up. From the flash of heat he saw in Jared's gaze, he wasn't alone in his remembrance.

 

 

True to his word, Jensen didn't leave Jared at Fogarra when they dropped off the cargo. He ordered them a few pints at the local hole in the wall and told them he was adding a new crew member.

"Knew that was comin'," Danneel said with a quirked up smirk.

"How long until you'n the giant move into a larger set of quarters, Cap?" Mike asked. Jensen gave him a firm kick under the table, but Aldis was the one who jerked and glared at him.

"Sorry," Jensen murmured. He glanced sideways at Jared, but the man was just grinning into his glass.

What a bastard. Jensen huffed out a sigh and drained down the rest of his booze.

"The lot of you better get back on the ship soon or I'll fly off without you."

"You'd never!" Genevieve said, a sharp laugh coming out of her mouth. Jensen glared.

"You don't wanna test me, do you?" Jensen raised an eyebrow at her and left a couple coins on the table. "Jared's comin' with me. I got a few things to show him on the ship."

"They got a bathroom over there that you could use instead, Cap."

Jensen told them all to fuck off as he grabbed Jared by the belt and hauled him away. Laughter followed their exit.

"What do you wanna show me?" Jared asked as they walked back towards the ship, a hulking shadow in the distance. Fiona was clunky but beautiful. Jensen allowed himself a smile as they got closer.

"You're crew now. Gotta show you the weapons stash, gotta get you a better room, familiarize you with some other parts of the ship."

"Oh," Jared said. He sounded a little disappointed and Jensen smirked at him.

"Tour of my quarters doesn't come until you earn it, boy."

Jared tossed his head back as he laughed, those damned dimples coming out, his eyes all lit up. Jensen smiled, helpless against it, and tugged at his hair. The gesture was old and full of affection. Jared's laughter trailed off and his face slid into something fond.

"I'll earn it, Jensen. You just wait and see."


End file.
